I frown, “We can't get in there, can we?”
Her smile tells me I’m wrong when she looks back at me.
A noise from behind us scares me. I slip against the wall, ready but Anna walks in, out of breath and whispering like a mad woman.
I step closer to hear her better. She points, “They’re here.”
My stomach clenches, “Will and Jake?”
She nods and tries to catch her breath.
“Did they see you?”
She shakes her head and gives me a look. I smirk until I see the blood trickling down her arm. I grab at it but she slaps my hand away, “Bullet grazed me. It’s a scratch.”
I sigh, “People die from scratches.”
She rolls her eyes.
Star drops to her knees and fishes something out from under the sink. She passes me her gun and stands up with a round thing in her hands.
She holds it up, “When I open the door, you press this on the side and toss it inside of the cellar.”
I nod. I don’t feel good. I have a bad feeling. I take the round thing; it looks like a grenade. I’ve seen them once. It was in an old military compound where I found my silencer.
I stare at the black button that I have to press and nod, “Let’s do this.”
Leo whines. He sniffs the food a bit and circles. I scratch his head. We walk to the cellar. Anna stays at the top of the stars with her gun ready. Star punches something into the keypad. A beep breaks the silence. I almost jump. She puts her hand on the handle and nods. She pulls back fast, I press the button and toss it inside. Instantly, smoke fills the room. She slams the door shut. I look up at Anna but she’s gone.
“Trap.”
Leo is gone too. I run up the stairs, knowing the cellar is empty. Marshall is smarter than that.
I round the corner from the kitchen and come to a skidding stop. Through the doorway I see a blonde head. A desperate cry makes an attempt from my throat but the fear has it clogged up. Next to the blonde head is a snarling and savage-looking teenager. I stuff the guns in the back of my pants quickly and hold the rifle like it’s my only weapon. I stumble out onto the front porch. Leo is huge, his hair is standing on end. A large man is holding Anna with a gun to her throat.
I look back at Star. Her eyes don’t show anything. I don’t know if it’s her that’s betrayed us, but I suspect. I know I’ve spent my life on the coward's path and she is my sister. We share the same pathetic blood.
I grip my rifle, walking forward.
Marshall clasps his hands, “Why there she is. The star of our party.”
I cringe; it was Star all along. The van that drove up wasn’t Jake and Will. It was Marshall. He never was at Bernie’s house. He was walking to my cabin to steal my family. I fake a smile at Sarah but she doesn’t buy it. I nod at Meg. She snarls and claws at the hand holding her.
“Give us your weapons and surrender and they live. Fight me and they die.”
I drop the rifle instantly and shoot Leo a sideways glance. He bows his head. As I walk forward, he will retreat to the side of the house. He will run into the woods. He will do as he is told. I have made that choice for him and he will not betray me. He will live. That’s what it’s always been about. I brought this fight and he will not die in it.
Something unexpected happens. Star growls, “Why Marshall? Why do you want her dead so badly?”
He points, “What do you think we’ve been hunting all these years, Star? You think the sole purpose of the fighting camps was stopping the breeder farms?”
I don’t understand but she gasps, “You’ve been killing the children?”
His eyes harden, “And this one is no different. She cannot be left to live. None of them can.”
She sounds sickened when she whispers, “You’re one of the Lord’s Keepers?”
He nods, “We have a job to do.” He points to the sky, “He kept us safe and alive when our world turned on itself. Only he has saved us.” He looks at me, “We let you live because we needed your help to stop the farms. You were making it so easy for us, bringing the little abominations right to us.”
My breath is hard to get, “Where did you take them?”
He shakes his head, “We just free them. The little bit of soul they have is given back to God.”
Star shouts, “Why? How could you? They were children!”
He gives us a blank look as he slowly walks behind Sarah and grabs her blonde hair, “THESE ARE CHILDREN! THOSE ARE MONSTERS MADE BY MAN! ONE MAN WHO THINKS HE’S A GOD! THERE IS ONE GOD AND HE DOES NOT ALLOW COPIES OF HIS CREATIONS!”
Sarah screams, making me twitch.
Star sounds like she might laugh at him, “So the van filled with children that we freed—those were coming to you, not the city?”
He looked at her, “Yes."
My hands twitch with a longing to hold the steel in my back. I glance around and feel a slight bit of relief at least that Leo is gone. “But you’re a scientist.” I point out.He shakes his head, “I was a scientist. I have always been a man of faith. I found a perfect harmony in science, nature, and God that most wouldn’t see. When the experiments with DNA started, I believed we were looking for a way to eradicate diseases, like diabetes. But that wasn’t it at all. He wanted to modify what God had already perfected. If there were diseases and imperfections, they too were man-made.”
Meg spits at him, “God would be ashamed of you.”
He backhands her and grabs a gun from the side of the man next to him. I see him contemplate killing Meg. My insides burn until he points it at me, “You come with us.”
Star grips her gun but I turn to her, “Get them out of here.”
She nods. I see her brain scrambling for an idea, but this is the best one and we both know it.
Sarah is released. She cries out, running to my arms. She grips me, “Don’t leave.”
I drop to my knee, “I love you! No matter what happens, you remember that.”
Her blue eyes are filled with tears. I have turned off my emotions though. I can’t feel sad, I’m stuck in fear and hate. I pull her sweaty, little fingers from my clothes and pass her to Star. Star holds her tight.
The man with the gun to Anna’s throat grins at me and tightens his finger. Meg gives me a subtle headshake. She has a plan. I give her a set look, “Go to Star.”
She begs me with her face. I shake my head, “Go.”
She is pushed into the dry grass, crying out from the force of it.
Marshall gives me a cruel, cold stare.
“WOLFIE!”
My head snaps around. Mary walks to us, gripping the little boy. No one holds her arm. No one has forced her to come from the side of the house. She is here freely. Of course she is.
“She has guns in her back, you idiots,” she points at me. I pull a gun, firing at her face. A shot hits my left shoulder but Mary drops onto the grass, spilling the boy from her arms. He screams. Star drops to her knees, pulling Sarah and Meg to the ground.
I roll instantly, shooting the man Anna has hit in the balls. He fires at me; I feel the bullet graze my side. I pull my other gun and force my body to work against the pain. Leo comes running from behind, he has disobeyed me. He jumps Marshall from behind.
I see the gun come up. I hear a scream. I shoot a man coming from the house firing at us.
I look back for Marshall but now there are a pile of them all struggling together. Shots are being fired within the pile. I stand, running as fast as I can. I grab Leo, dragging him from the pile. Meg is on top of Marshall, holding the rifle I dropped. She fires into his chest. She runs to save Leo.
Marshall glares at me, "You'll never stop us. God wants you all dead." I see Marshall’s eyes go slack as he coughs a last bit of blood.
Leo stands but his back leg buckles. He’s been shot in the hind legs somewhere. He isn’t the one I’m grabbing though. The dark eyes searching my face are breaking my heart. “Is he damned-well dead?” she asks and coughs.
I nod, tears are streaming my face. Star is limping, carrying Sarah. I can't see properly. Anna crawls to us. We are all covered in blood. I grip Meg to me, I can't talk. I don’t know what to say.
Meg smiles, “Is Leo okay?”
I glance and him and nod, “He’ll be okay. It’s a leg wound.”
She nods, “Good.”
She has saved him. I peel back her clothes, pressing my hands into the gushing blood coming from her stomach. I know what that is—that is death. Even in the old world, a stomach shot was death.
She holds me, her eyes are wild, “The cabin is gone, Em. They burned it to the ground.”
I close my eyes.
She sniffles, “They shot Ron too.”
I cry harder, “I’m sorry, Meg.”
She shakes her head, “At least he’s waiting for me.” She closes her eyes and grips me tighter, “Mary was one of them.”
“I figured. I’m sorry I let her stay.”
She gives me a funny smile, “I least I got to kick the crap outta her before they got there to attack.” Her eyes dart at Sarah.
I laugh and cry. Sarah sobs over Meg, “Don’t die, Meg.”
Meg opens her dark eyes, “Hey, kid. I’m not dying, I’m going to be with Ron.” Her eyes twinkle, “He owes me something.” She looks at me, “God’ll forgive you, Em. I’ll tell him how much you done for us all when I get there.” She closes her eyes again and winces, "Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t all his plan, using you to free people. He knows you're good inside. Stop them from killing them babies, Em."
I hug her tightly, "I love you, Meg. I will."
She coughs and nods, "Me too, Em. You're as thorny as a rose bush, but like the flowers on them, you're worth the scratches." Her eyes open and she winks at Sarah, "Be good."
Sarah sobs harder, "Don’t leave me, Meg."
She shakes her head, "Never."
I watch as her face goes calm. Anna is bawling with a high-pitched wheeze, holding Sarah. I can't breath and Leo has dragged himself over. He’s nudging her and whining.